News

News is breaking that Wisconsin has dropped to 37th in the nation in job growth over the past year, creating just 23,963 new jobs -- a figure that puts our rate of growth at about half the national average and is less than half as many jobs as our neighbors in Minnesota created during the same period.

That’s according to the latest Quarterly Census of Employment and Wages figures, the most reliable and accurate federal jobs statistics available, regarded as the “gold standard” by Scott Walker himself.

The 23,963 jobs added in Wisconsin are the worst numbers for a one year period in the past three years. In the previous year, immediately following the recall election after which Scott Walker predicted “unbelievable amounts” of new jobs, Wisconsin added 37,959 jobs. And two years ago, under the last Democratic budget, Wisconsin added 39,909 jobs.

The QCEW figures come just days after it was reported that Wisconsin was leading the nation in new unemployment filings.

Recent polling from Marquette University shows that Wisconsinites understand the reality of the state’s grim economic situation. Nearly two-thirds of Wisconsinites believe that our state’s economic situation will stay the same or get worse over the next year and 70 percent say their personal financial situation has stayed the same or gotten worse since Scott Walker took office.

“Scott Walker cannot be taken seriously when it comes to job growth and economic recovery,” Democratic Party of Wisconsin Chair Mike Tate said Wednesday. “Instead of solutions, Walker simply offers excuses and doubles down on the same failed policies that imperiled the economic security of the middle-class in the first place. It’s way past time for Scott Walker to accept responsibility for why Wisconsin continues to lag our neighbors in the Midwest and most of the rest of the nation when it comes to job creation.”